Well, the weather here on the Coast is certainly making up for lost time during the last ten fine days (eight of them while we've been here). It's been torrential rain for the last 36 hours, not just heavy, more like a solid sheet of water falling straight down out of the sky. The noise on the roof of the van is horrendous, you can't hear yourself think. I love rain on the roof but this is ridiculous, sleeping last night was just about impossible. We're not about to float away thankfully, the NZMCA Park is very well drained.
I took photos of the Waiho River bailey bridge, which is at the south end of the Franz Josef village when we arrived. I shot back down to the bridge this afternoon to see how much the river had risen, here's the before and after photos, just 48 hours apart-
While I was there this afternoon this very cool house truck was crossing the bumpy one-way bridge. I love the bucket over the chimney, I wonder who has to climb up to remove it at the next stop.
We had our share of West Coast rain during our first visit to New Zealand in February. It was epic. It rained all the way from Porters Pass to Punakaiki to Haast Pass to Makaroa over days, either drizzle or torrential. Lucky enough at Fox Glacier, we were granted one sunny morning for helicopter ride and a cloudy afternoon for glacier guided walk and that's it. Thinking back it's quite similar to your recent tour to Glenorchy, we see nothing much other than the grayish cloudy sky, grey sea without horizon, thick fog and water, water, water. Many people say West Coast has the most scenic route. We have no idea. Now we have a good reason to return in future :)
ReplyDeleteWell, like they say, 'you can't have a rain forest without the rain'. It's been on and off for most of our stay but like you we've been able to fit excursions in between downpours. We're also lucky that we have the time to sit it out and wait for the clear days.
Delete